Theo of Golden: A Novel by Allen Levi - 57

Three days after Theo’s death, while the investigation continued in Golden, and Broadway mourned its loss, an article appeared on the front page of New York’s most prestigious newspaper. Social media and other news outlets picked up the story, and it quickly reached the eyes of millions. Among that vast audience was a particularly interested subset in the art world. The New York headline, all caps in thirty-six-point font, read:

Renowned Artist Dies in Fall

A smaller heading added:

Reclusive Genius Leaves Behind Prized Collection

The article was equal parts obituary, biography, encomium, investigative journalism, human interest, and cultural news. It filled a generous portion of the front page and half of another. Two photographs — one of a brooding, middle-aged, bearded face, the other of an art gallery — accompanied the text. A longer article, which included the full text from the newspaper, appeared on the paper’s website.

Renowned Portuguese-American artist, Gamez Theophilus Zilavez, known throughout the world as “Zila,” died Thursday morning from injuries sustained in a fall at his temporary residence in Golden, Georgia. He was 87 years old.

Known for a career that spanned six decades, Zila belonged to the prolific group of 20th-century artists whose work garnered record-breaking sales in the latter half of the century. Like other notables of the era, he was a one-name celebrity whose fame as an artist was almost equaled by his reputation as a recluse. For the past three decades, while his art received critical praise and enthusiastic bids at auction, he was rarely seen in public. His New York office aggressively guarded his privacy and granted no interviews.

His works are among permanent museum collections and galleries around the world, including the National Gallery in London, the Petit Palais in Paris, the Uffizi in Florence, and the Metropolitan in New York City.

He was also an avid collector of art. His private collection, at the famed Zila Gallery in Chelsea, houses a wide range of styles and periods, including pieces by Delacroix, Courbet, Gauguin, Kahlo, Basquiat, Rosetti, and Picasso. It is one of the most highly valued private collections in the US. He sometimes modestly referred to himself as “a businessman.”

Zila was born on October 28, 1932, in Pinhão, a village in northern Portugal. He had no siblings. His father and mother, both deceased, were agricultural laborers in the wine country of the Douro Valley and, as recounted by Zila in early interviews and articles, encouraged an aesthetic sensitivity in the boy.

After an encounter at age ten with a “painting fisherman” on the banks of the Douro River — a story captured in the BBC documentary titled Painting in Portuguese — Zila began drawing and painting with pencils and watercolors given to him by his grandmother.

As a teen, he worked the vineyards of northern Portugal, an internationally demarcated region where grapes have been cultivated since the 18th century for production of port wine. His burgeoning talent as a young artist serendipitously came to the attention of Edmund Timmons, owner of the famed Timmons House Distributors in London and an avid collector of 19th-century art.

Timmons became a benefactor to the young Zila, encouraged his development as an artist, introduced him to noteworthy art movements of the day, underwrote his education in the Paris School, and brought him to the attention of curators and collectors throughout Europe.

Zila subsequently repaid the favor by investing substantial amounts in Timmons House Distributors after disastrous floods destroyed many of the port cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia in 1969.

By the time Zila completed his studies in Paris, his work had received critical acclaim and was on display in exclusive European galleries, even as avant garde and modernist movements dominated the art market. Patronage of wealthy collectors, fortuitous acceptance by well-known curators and gallerists, and a charm that made him a darling of the public contributed to his early success.

The young Zila, like many of the Paris ilk, studied and experimented with modalities of cubism, impressionism, and minimalism. He ultimately returned to classical realism, what he sometimes described as “the abandoned child of modernity’s disillusionment.”

His rise in the art world was often described as “meteoric” and, by some, unwarranted. His work faced fierce denunciation from critics who argued that his style was outdated, simplistic, and apolitical. His greatest achievement, some believed, was his ability to survive the hostile world of art criticism and curation.

Zila’s iconic large-canvas Boat #216 was chosen by the IAA as one of the fifty most significant works of the 20th century. It is on permanent display at the United Nations. Its unveiling in 1987 was the last notable appearance made by the artist, aside from a handful of unpublicized, unannounced appearances in Portugal in subsequent years.

Before leaving the public stage, he conducted numerous master classes throughout Europe. He also held short professorial roles, including an early stint as artist-in-residence at the Prado in Madrid from 1960 through 1962 .

Among his lesser-known achievements was designation of a color known as Zila green by the Schmincke Mussini Company in Germany. The artist helped develop the tint from a mixture that includes sediment from the Douro River.

Zila had an avid interest in and maintained an extensive collection of portrait art, which is on permanent display at his New York gallery. In addition to his own portraiture are pieces by John Singer Sargent, Carl Larsson, and Anders Zorn.

Zila was married to Swiss heiress and socialite Celeste Hargue. They had one child, a daughter. Mother and child were killed in an automobile accident in 1987, a loss that sent the artist into a deep depression which his publicist later coined “his walking season.” Following a year in which he produced no new work, he returned to the art market with a flurry of abstract pieces that were eventually collected and toured in an exhibit entitled “Ecclesiastes.” Selections from that display are now permanently housed at the Tate in London.

Zila never remarried.

His great fondness for rivers resulted in a 1998 collection of fifteen canvasses entitled “The River Suite.” The collection celebrates waterways of the US and Europe. The paintings were popularized internationally through their use in campaigns by various government and private organizations to advocate stewardship of native rivers and clean water .

Zila had, as well, an ardent interest in birdwatching. He frequently made excursions to locate new species for his birding list and contributed a series of sketches, gratis, to the Cornell University School of Ornithology in 2001 in support of its work.

The artist was inducted into and received honors from numerous international arts organizations, many of which include him on their lists of significant artists of the past century. Though he declined invitations to the ceremonies that honored him, he often sent eloquent handwritten letters of gratitude to sponsors of the events.

The often lengthy letters, which, taken together, embody a thoughtfully articulated philosophy of art and creativity, were compiled in a collector’s edition of his work on his 80th birthday.

In one of the most notable of those letters, which accompanied a portrait of his friend and musician, Pablo Casals, he quipped that “The only reason I am an artist is because I do not have the genius to play cello.”

Over the span of his career, Zila lived in Paris, Florence, Rio de Janeiro, and New York. He traveled extensively. His reason for being in Georgia at the time of his death is not known.

Zila died from injuries sustained when he fell from the balcony of his residence. An investigation of the incident is ongoing.

Zila’s longtime personal assistant and gallerist, Anais Metoir, in a phone conversation with this writer, stated that, “I spoke with Zila last week. He was doing very well. Contrary to the public perception of him as a tragic, lonesome, brooding artist, he was happier perhaps than I have ever known him to be, certainly happier than at any time since his daughter died. He was fully invested in the art of living. The world has lost a giant. I have lost a very dear friend, and I will miss him terribly.”

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

A sidebar to the article contained a final item of information about Theo.

A spokesperson at the Zila Gallery stated that the last paintings known to have been done by the artist, completed earlier this year, was a six-canvas collection called “The Blues of Golden.” It includes images of a hat, a pair of shoes, a pill bottle, a feather, and a riverscape. The collection is soon to be on display at the gallery.